This week’s contest will be a drawing from people registered for the LRK newsletter. Sign up now for your chance to win a LRK T-shirt!

Week 3 — February 16Mary Russell Puzzle

Solve this week’s puzzle for a chance to win a complete set of the first four Russells from Picador Books. The puzzle will go live on Monday February 16, and the deadline for completed puzzles is Friday, February 20.

Week 4 — February 23 MySpace Contest

Post a comment on Mary Russell’s blog this week to be entered in a drawing to win a complete set of the first four Russell paperbacks!

Week 5 — March 2Mary Russell Puzzle

Solve this week’s puzzle for a chance to win a complete set of the first four Russells from Picador Books. The puzzle will go live on Monday March 2, and the deadline for completed puzzles is Friday, March 6.

Week 6 — March 9Facebook Fan Drawing

Visit Laurie’s Facebook page this week and become a fan to be entered in a drawing to win a compete set of the first four Mary Russell paperbacks.

Our first big contest of the Fifteen Weeks. See below for contest details, and enter your best Russellism by Friday, March 13 for a chance to win an advanced reading copy (ARC) of The Language of Bees! The winner will be announced on Friday, March 20.

Week 8 — March 23Trivia Contest

Answer this week’s Mary Russell trivia quiz to win another ARC of The Language of Bees. Download the quiz questions here. Any and all answers will be entered in the contest, so give it your best try and send your answers toBees@LaurieRKing.com. The quiz will go live on Monday March 23!(NOTE: If you have any problems downloading this document, try here instead.)

Week 9 — March 30Mary Russell Puzzle

Solve this week’s puzzle for a chance to win a complete set of the first four Russells from Picador Books. The puzzle will go live on Monday March 30, and completed puzzles are due by Friday, April 3.

Week 10 — April 6Goodreads Contest

This week’s contest will be hosted over at Laurie’s Goodreads page. Head over there for your chance to win an autographed hardcover of The Language of Bees before it’s available in stores! The contest will open a few weeks beforehand and close on Friday, April 10, when the winner will be announced.

Week 11 — April 13National Library Week Contests

In celebration of Libraries, we’ll be having not one but two giveaways this week:1) Email us about your favorite library or library experience to be entered in a drawing for an autographed hardcover of The Language of Bees! The lucky library (as mentioned by the winner) will also get original hardback editions of all nine Russell and Holmes novels, from The Beekeeper’s Apprentice to The Language of Bees.

2) Because Laurie does love libraries, she will also give a copy of The Language of Bees to a library drawn from the Laurie Loves Libraries list, so be sure to enter your library either using the form provided or by emailing it to us directly.

Celebrate tax day by submitting your Mary Russell video by April 24 for a chance to win an autographed hardcover ofThe Language of Bees. See below for contest details. The winner will be announced on Friday, April 24.

To help us celebrate the release of The Language of Bees, let your imagination run wild and write a fan fiction story set just prior to Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes’ first meeting. The only requirement? It must have a bee in it somewhere! The deadline is April 24 (just extended!!!), and the prize will be an autographed hardcover of The Language of Bees. For details, please see the contest guidelines below. The winner will be announced on Friday, May 1.

Sharpen your artistic skills and submit a panel for the Russellscape project, an endless landscape of Russell and Holmes’ adventures. The winning panel will become a new T-shirt design in the LRK Cafepress store — and the winner will of course get one for themselves! The deadline for submission will be Friday, May 1 — please download the contest guidelinesbelow. The winner will be announced on Friday, May 8.

Week 15 — May 11Heifer International Drawing

Anyone who donates toHeifer International through the Team LRK page will be entered in a drawing to win the two brand new trade paperback edition of Mary Russell novels numbers 5 and 6 from Bantam Books as well as an ARC of The Language of Bees.

Donate two beehives to Heifer and you’ll not only receive Meditations on Beekeeping by Sherlock Holmes, you could see your name in the next Laurie R. King novel (see next week’s contest for details.)

May 22Arthur Conan Doyle’s Birthday

And for the finale: In honor of the 150th Birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, an event at the San Francisco Public Library with Les Klinger on May 21 (The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes), an issuance of the funds raised for Heifer International, and the announcement of the Grand Prize winner — to be known as the Queen (or King) Bee.Also on May 21, we will have a drawing from the receipts of Independent Booksellersfor the chance to win a limited edition copy of the beautiful “Venomous Death” broadside, signed by the author and the artist. Send a copy of yours to Bees@LaurieRKing.com today!

Entries for both contests must be received by May 20 in order to be entered in the drawings.

Contest Guidelines

A Sherlockism is a pithy Holmes saying: “There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.” “When you’ve eliminated the impossible, what remains, however improbable, must be true.”A Russellism is a pithy saying as found in one of the Russell stories (which may be said by Russell, or not): “He’s as real as I am, said Sherlock Holmes.”

If you come up with a Russellism Laurie can use in Russell X, you win. Submit as many entries as you would like to Bees@LaurieRKing.com. The winner will be announced on Friday, March 20.

YouTube ContestDeadline: April 15

Are you a fan of the world’s greatest consulting detective and her husband, Sherlock Holmes? Do you have a video camera and a YouTube account? Then we want you!

Ms. Russell’s literary agent and editor, Laurie R. King, is sponsoring a video contest to celebrate the release of the 9th volume of Ms. Russell’s memoirs,The Language of Bees, in stores April 28th. What kind of videos do we want? Any kind you can think of! You can dress up like your favorite character. You can make a casting video for your dream Russell/Holmes movie. Are you an artist? Make a slideshow with some original artwork. Make a video of your favorite quote. Puppet theater? Why not make a humorous reenactment of your favorite scene?

The rules are…well, there are no rules. The main things are to get your video submitted by April 24th and make sure your entry could be viewed by Mrs. Hudson herself. So keep it clean, and have fun!

Please upload your video onto your own YouTube account and email us the link. The submitted videos will be included on the Laurie R. King YouTube channel, and the winner will be announced on Friday, April 24.

An “endless landscape” or myriorama was a popular Victorian entertainment involving a set of cards with edges that matched up, so that laid randomly side by side, a long and varied landscape was created. Ours is shown on the home page, and we’d like to have a lot more panels. (For more information on the panels, see the Contest Results page.) Download the outline and instructions in PDF form here or a JPG of the outline here. If you’d rather submit your panel via snail mail, please send it to: P.O. Box 1152, Freedom, CA, 95019. The winner will be announced on Friday, May 8.